Former PC Magazine Editor-in-Chief Sours on Vista

Jim Louderback, the former editor-in-chief of PC Magazine, after using Vista for nine months, has soured on the OS.

Mr. Louderback is moving on to a new venture, and his departing comments about Vista have nothing to do with his leaving. However, in the process of writing his last column as editor-in-chief, he expressed serious doubts about Vista.

"Iive been a big proponent of the new OS over the past few months, even going so far as loading it onto most of my computers and spending hours tweaking and optimizing it," Mr. Louderback wrote. "So why, nine months after launch, am I so frustrated? The litany of what doesnit work and what still frustrates me stretches on endlessly."

The irritating problems have involved Vistais sleep mode, something that was supposed to facilitate an immediate resume. It doesnit.

Even more serious is the grave problem with networking: "Networking, too, gives me huge headaches. In XP, a simple right click on the system tray icon put me one click away from IP settings and connections status. Now that same icon brings up a menu of options that [lead to] obfuscation mode, not any sort of network sharing Iim familiar with. Iive configured every PC on my home network to share drives and printers, yet owing to some undiscovered element, thereis no guarantee that any of them will be visible at any given time."

Also, Mr. Louderbackis media PC center simply drops off the network for no known reason.

Speaking to his own network, a trusted zone, the PC Magazine Chief asked, "And why does it take so long for the dialog box to pop up after I right-click on the network tray icon? Vista has replaced XPis quick reaction time with molasses. Iim always wondering if somethingis wrong."

The final paragraph of exasperation is telling. "I could go on and on about the lack of drivers, the bizarre wake-up rituals, the strange and nonreproducible system quirks, and more. But I wonit bore you with the details. The upshot is that even after nine months, Vista just ainit cutting it.

"I definitely gave Microsoft too much of a free pass on this operating system: I expected it to get the kinks worked out more quickly. Boy, was I fooled! If Microsoft canit get Vista working, I might just do the unthinkable: I might move to Linux."

So said Jim Louderback, former editor-in-chief of PC Magazine.